"And what is it that mac's stand for that ppl hate so much?"
- Ben
Back in the late '70s, before there was a M$, there was Apple Computer. They did a great job portraying themselves as the champions of freedom and openness, as opposed to big, bad ol' IBM. And yet, it was all a sham. Microsoft wanted a monopoly over the personal computer, and desktop software; Apple wanted it all: an absolute monopoly over, not just the software, but also the hardware. The first Macs were locked up so tightly that you couldn't even see what was "under the hood" unless you had a special tool (available only from Apple) to open the cabinet. Techies "in the know" back then liked this no more than today's techies like M$ and its control-freak mentality. Indeed, the first Macs were referred to as: "The Biege Toaster", "The Mackintoy", or much less pleasently, as the "Maggot Box".
As they say, "first impressions are lasting impressions", and techies have very long memories indeed. Apple still leaves a bad taste in the mouths of a not insignificant number of techies to this day. Is any of this justified? Not today. Apple failed in its attempt to create a monopoly, nor are they likely to achieve one any time soon. Today, Apple is important as they are the only players that have a chance at challengeing the Redmond Beast. And they have some terrific products, OS X for sure, the iPod, and it sure was a damn shame that people wouldn't give the Cube a chance. Apple is an excellent alternative to Wintel rigs and Macro$uck.